Sort of Random Thoughts

This great post is bought to you by (and nicked from) Roxanne and her amazing sister Shelly. Check out their blogs ... so so interesting and inspiring.


So just in case my kids one day want to look back and know a bit more about me (at the moment they both wish David and I would shuffle off to the retirement Village and leave them alone).


 ... here goes



11 Random facts about me..

1) If you had an unlimited amount of money to spend at any store of your choice, where would it be?
Flightcentre.com.au. I dream of taking the family to Bali.  

2) Where's your favorite place to eat?
www.bavigo.com.au     or    www.guzmanygomez.com

3) When not blogging, what do you do for fun?
Going  to the beach with the family and friends .

4) Favorite print magazine?
Weekend Australia magazine or the Q Weekend Mag in the Courier Mail. I can't stand fashion or gossip magazines.

5) Your life is going to be a script for a movie, who would you want to play you?
My life is way too boring to be on the big screen.  

6) Coffee or tea?
Both ...Coffee in the morning but I LOVE a well made ice tea.

7) Book or movie?
Both ... love going to see a flick with my Bestie Vyc but I also read everydayand look forward to jumping into bed each night with my book.

8) Camping or a luxury hotel?
Both ....I loved our last camping trip but who wouldn't love to stay in a luxury hotel?

9) What is the worst gift you've ever received?
Gifts are my love language so I LOVE all gifts that I received.
I just love some a lot more than others :-)

10) If you could eat one thing for the rest of your life what would it be?
Vegies

11) What smell do you like the best?
What ever perfume I am obsessed with at the moment. Guess Seductive is my current fave (and Vyc gave me a bottle that she didnt like. Such a score!)

Specific questions

1) What's one thing you're currently looking forward to?

Spending Christmas with my family.  

2) What is your favorite post on your blog?

  NONE! Haha I think its all mindless dribble.

3) Who is your best friend and why?

David, because we spend the most time together and he supports me 100%. I am also lucky to be surrounded by sisters, sis in laws, girlfriends and work mates who I love dearly and lean on when I need to. 
 

4) Are you a spender or a saver?

Ever since David and I built our first house, I have stuck to a budget. But that is by necessity and I suspect if I could, I would be more of a spender. I think we should save more and its a huge goal for me.

5) What's your favorite joke?

 Anything that comes out the mouth of Judith Lucy

6) What's one hobby you'd like to learn but haven't?

Bush walking
 

7) What's your favorite part of the day?

 Early morning -  just me, my coffee and the quiet house.

8) What's your favorite dish to order at a restaurant?

 I like to order things I dont cook at home, so seafood pasta or salmon.

9) You can go back in time and change one thing without negative consequences. What would it be?

 My Mum

10) Who is your imaginary celebrity bestie?

Caroline Hutchinson ... I managed to stalk her on FB and become her "friend"... I'm nearly there! 

11) What's the one movie you could watch over and over again?

 Dear John and Black Hawk Down

YOUR TURN
 

Riddle me this...

I have opinions and I have questions, this post is a bit of both because I need answers so:
Lets Go

Inception

I am the last person on earth to see this film, I put off borrowing it from the library because I thought I would be too dumb to understand it and thus confirm what I have always suspected. Huh turns out that I DID understand it and it WAS a great movie ... but the end was lame. Part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was that I had to concentrate on it (and I was sort of smug that  half way through the DVD I wasn't completely  LOST)  but I thought that for all its cleverness, the ending was predictable and flaky. Do you agree?  

 

 

Sister Wives

 

 

 

I have just finished reading a book about the above pictured women all being married to the same bloke. What the?

They also have a reality tv show (that I haven't seen) so I guess its all above board but really ... why?

The book is a corker in that they are all pretty snarky with one another (the wives that is) and they don't actually even live together anymore. I wouldn't call that multiple marriage or polygamy, I would call that family dysfunction. I know some of you may actually have a bit more insight into these peeps (in that you live in Utah, not that you have 4 husbands lol) so what gives? Is there a lot of sister wives out there or is this family just making a motza out of being different?

 

 

Sibling Rivalry

   



Why do my kids fight like they are honestly cant stand one another? They are driving us batty right now. On Saturday afternoon Lucy was gone for 3 hours to her friends house and Riley was like a different person. He smiled and talked and was so amiable, but the minute I picked Lu up they both started  behaving like toddlers. We have since separated them at the dinner table ... like we did when he was 5 and she was 2, its ace.

Don't be fooled by their smiles... they are just thinking up ways to torment their parents.

 

 

 

 



The freight train called Christmas
Its coming for me and I am not ready ... I say this every year and I never learn to plan /stress more efficiently.


The commercialisation crassness called Christmas
There is a shop at the plaza that has a huge sign painted in its window that says


"Cant be stuffed??? Get a voucher"

Words fail me... Every year it seems we get further away from the tenets of what we are celebrating and it makes me feel sad (and old).




Blood noses (at 2am)
Lucy suffers from blood noses (she gets it from her mum)we have been to a few Dr's and a specialist because it can be full on and take her out of class etc.  The specialist told us it was going to get worse around puberty and yes that would be correct. Most nights for the past week she has come into our room because she cant stop the bleeding. Ice packs on her neck seem to help a little bit.  Last night she wandered into Riley's room looking for a bit of help/compassion/ an ice pack. He starts screaming and her -I'd say he was half asleep but still he carried on like a pork chop and then we are ALL awake at 2am. Plus I had blood to clean off both Lucy and Riley's carpet. It wasn't ace at all. 




Lastly I just finished reading this book

Still Alice  by Lisa Genova

and now I am petrified of getting Alzheimer's ... and  going batty and not knowing I am going batty ... you get the picture. Just one more thing to worry about!

Froth and Nonsense (in point form)

• I am desperate to blog ... but have very limited Internet/time/space or a life.


• We demo'd our kitchen yesterday. No more Kitchen for us... until D makes a new one. I borrowed an electric frypan from Vyc thinking I would be able to cook up a storm whilst having no kitchen... but its the washing up in the bathroom that is killing me. I see a lot of take away in our near future.


• I cant find my camera or camera cord so no pics of the demo'd kitchen or the massive hole in my house where the kitchen once lived.


• Lucy was in her school play this week. She was Helen of Troy in the classic Greek Odyssey. It satisfied her need for drama (just ;-)and she was so good.


• Bear scored a 48 not out at Cricket this weekend. He was so happy. He has been worried about his "form". Out of the slump may have been mentioned. He makes me lol that child.


• It was the anniversary of my beautiful Mum's passing yesterday. I cant fathom that it has been 18 years since we spoke or hugged or kissed (or even yelled). Because I am a walking cliche ... sometimes it feels like I have spent a whole life time with a Mum shaped gap in my heart and I get sad because I am starting to forget her in ways and form, then other days I feel her very close to me. I am coming to love the nights when I dream about her (even when those dreams make me cry and cry...) because I feel really close to her ... like we have been visiting each other. Love your peeps tight. and if you are my sibling reading this I love you more than words and if I had a phone that worked I would have told you that yesterday. Ex


• I cant find my phone charger and my mob is flat and D pulled the home phone out months ago when an internal wall come down. Yesterday this made me very annoyed and very determined to go organise myself an iphone.


• We had tea with Cath and the girls yesterday (and Ash and the beautiful Carla) and I think i fell in love with D all oVer again :-) ... He had to cook the 14 steaks on the barbie 14 different ways. That pressure would have done me in. Everyone got perfect steak.


• I am coming undone working one and half jobs in the space of two weeks. But its not forever and its all a means to an end so I need to toughen up and fly straight (I love a mixed metaphor).


• If you celebrated Thanks Giving recently ... Happy Thanks Giving to you . Ex

I will be back with pics when I have time ... and a life and I find my charger and camera.

Love Exxxx

Too True

I love this quote. It is nicer and catchier than the one I came up with, which was

For Goodness Sake CALM DOWN!
the worst case scenario
might not even happen.

Very Very Random

Look at the walls people.

• We and by "we" I mean David has finished painting our new bedroom, WIR and ensuite. We went for an off white colour that is called Dulux Natural White (they paid someone $ to come up with that name) its very very subtle and we both love it.


(not our house, just our wall colour)





• Our tiler Clayton is in da house. By the end of the day we should have the floor in the ensuite finished and by "we" I mean Clayton. Clayton plays cricket with David and when we first asked him to quote our tiling I wanted to see some of his finished work (have you ever seen a bad tiling job? It stays with ya). Dave made the point that Clayton has a stunning looking wife...ergo he does good tiling. So now you all know how to pick a good tiler. Your welcome.
  
  



• David has picked out the colours for our Kitchen and Walk in robe and by David I mean David. It is such a crack up because every time we have to pick colours or materials Dave says " what ever you want" so I pick what I want and he looks at it and says "no, how about this". He has a good eye so I am happy to go with him with my only stipulation being a white granite kitchen benchtop and a darker colour wood grain on the island bench.
  White benchtops/woodgrain contrast.
  




• I did online grocery shopping for the first time this weekend. I LOVED it. I will be doing it again and again. I spend hours every second weekend doing our food shopping. It doesn't sound like a lot of time but it kills my soul. I still get my fruit and veggies from the market and my meat from the butcher but not having to go to ghetto town and push around a broken trolley with the masses made my weekend. I even had the will to clean out the fridge before putting all the food away. Normally I just have the will to scream at people for being so ungrateful after I finish the grocery shopping.






• I watched Country Strong.
  
  
  I loved the music and the story. I wonder if Faith Hill was considered for the role that Gwyneth Paltrow took? It was a bit weird seeing Tim McGraw in a country music movie and not sing one song. I wonder what the edgy and super cool Mr Paltrow (Chris Martin) thinks of his wife doing such commercial movies? Now that I have written that ... are they still even married?
  
  


• I am reading this book. Before I go to sleep by SJ Watson. The premise is so interesting. A woman wakes up every morning with no long term memory. So photos etc are labelled with things like "this is your husband". I am about half way through and its starting to drag so I hope it finishes with a bang.






• I am slowly getting better. SLOWLY being the word. I even have a little bit of my sense of smell back. This is a good and bad thing I have discovered. Good because I am no longer worried that I am smelly and bad because I can smell for sure that my house IS smelly.
  


• Someone should clean my house. And by someone I mean You.

Post Holiday Blues

I have started to do a recap of our New Zealand trip about 4 times and then real life gets in the way.

I hate the post holiday blues that I always seem to get after a big trip.

Real life is killing me at the moment so I will come back when I have something interesting to say.

If I had the gumption (or energy) I'd post about:

What I Wore Wednesday

Gay Marriage

Craig Thomson

The Carbon Tax

Twitter

and

David Hicks and The Premier's Literary Award

Most of these posts would include the words....

Dear Politicians,

How about you start earning that shite load of cash you take home each payday and actually start LEADING this bloody country before we end up going to hell in a hand basket.

From Elizabeth

Dirty Little Secrets

So you already know my child had nits and yes when I say nits I mean blood sucking head lice.



Moving on to more Dirty Little Secrets.


DLS No 2.

I cant stop listening to this album. It is cardio booyah. It makes the running easier.
No I don't approve.
Yes I think shes exploited.
No I wouldn't want that life for my kid.
Yes I think her parents need a slap and
No I cant spell hypocrite.


DLS No 3.

I really want to see The Town ... and not for the narrative arc.

So there you have it 3 DLS down, thousands more to go... and of course feel free to share your own DLS.

Lulu has nits

and because I find it best to gloss over all the boring and crappy parts of domesticity & child wrangling I'm going to instead :

Drool over this ring

and this one too. Perfect for summer.

found here http://www.palasjewellery.com.au/ and here http://www.najo.com.au/

Wonder if this guys next album will be any good.

Look forward to going here for a weekend without the small peeps who yell at me and possibly give me nits.

Laugh at this: (be very warned the language is very blue)

http://twitter.com/shitmydadsays

and very much relate to this:

One is the loneliest....

With Elaine out of town, Gary couldn't even enjoy his favourite dinner of brie and tree branch.

http://catalogliving.net/

It's a blog that sends up the ridiculousness of Interior Design Catalogs. Its comedy gold and much thanks goes to MRS B as I stole it off her blog. Thank you Mrs B.

Things I can learn ya

Don't ever say I am not a font of knowledge and this advice comes free so if you are cheap like me, pay attention.

• If you leave a small roast in the slow cooker for about 10 hours it will shrink to about half its original size and look most unappetising. If you chop it up and mix it with a packet of roast meat gravy ... you can have roast rolls for tea. If you don't mention the slightly burnt taste of the roast rolls chances are other peeps wont either.
This is not my roast ... mine was worse.




• If your teenager is annoying you with his teenage attitude take him to gym class with you. You will feel secretly thrilled when the instructor makes his muscles cane and he will be too exhausted/filled with endorphins to argue with you, fight with his sister or call his father unflattering names...for at least 6 hours anyway.





• If you sign your child up for theatre classes don't be surprised when they turn into a drama queen and nick your foundation "because the theatre lights are making me look very pale" and make a list of demands each and every day like a true Diva.
  
  
• If you are somewhat of a control freak and you plan a night out with your husband and it all goes to hell in a hand basket don't drop your bundle, leave your favorite restaurant before even ordering drinks and be home to relieve the baby sitter before 7.30pm... you will feel slightly ill the next day for acting like a 3 year old and you may have to apologise to innocent bystanders aka the husband.


• If you have about 6 cold sores on your face and you are trying every patch cream tablet and miracle cure known to man don't be surprised when everyone wants to tell you you have "something on your lip". The girl at the newsagents thought it was "icing" ICING!!!

I feel ya pain Katie.

That is it for now... I'm off to put some more icing on my lip and see what time boxercise starts.

Random randomness

• I attended an anti bullying seminar last week by Michael Carr Gregg.
  Mr Carr Gregg advises and works with Channel Seven who screened the documentary about footballer Ben Cousins. At the seminar he said he had previewed the doco and thought they should show it in high schools to teenage boys. Whoa... unless the second part of the dcoc actually shows how taking drugs will RUIN your life I wouldn't be showing it to my kids anytime soon. David and I watched it and both agreed that it gave the message of an uber talented footballer given God like status who loved recreational drugs and for a lot of years was enabled by his family, coach, club and friends to take the drugs as long as it didn't interfere with Match Day. Oh and that after years of the police trying to nab him for the drug use he was "set up" by the drug task force and media. The fact that Ben Cousins still looks like a healthy young alpha male today doesn't scream "I nearly wrecked my life with drugs" enough for me to show it to Bear as a cautionary tale. Maybe I am completely wrong and teenagers need to really admire the person giving them the message.

• I tried a new recipe last night posted here Citrus Beef Stir fry. It was delicious but it took me a lot longer to put together than a normal stir fry. There was a few different steps involved more than my usual "cut up chuck in" method of beef stir fry. Of course after I have gone to the extra effort I then get annoyed that nobody acts thankful enough at the dinner table because I slaved for an extra 30 mins on tea. It did expand my cooking skills and I now know how to get crispy beef strips... which will go beautifully with any sauce and rice. Kim's blog has some really nice recipes if you are looking for some inspiration.

• I got some free tickets to the movies. Unfortunately for Dave its this movie. I'm making a "date night" out of it and we are going out to tea as well. I hope Steve Carell turns up.
  
  

• I try to shop for groceries twice a month. This means that when I do get to Woolies it takes 2 trolleys, 2 hours and way more patience than I possess. I am seriously thinking about doing my grocery shopping on line and getting the Woolies man to schlep it up to my house (our area just got free delivery ... oh the progress). Have you ever shopped online for groceries? Did it fix all the stresses in your life ? (cause surely this will be the thing that makes my life perfect).
  
  

• 
  Our home phone has been broken for over 12 months. We are not big talkers on the home phone obviously . We did purchase a new phone a couple of weeks ago only to find out that it wasn't the phone that was broken but the line to the phone. The knowledge that I had to ring Telstra and get them to repair the line stressed me to the point of insomnia (yep I am an idiot). Yesterday I called Telstra ... It took about 3 and half minutes for the nice girl in India to lodge the fault and by lunch time it was fixed. Yep I am an idiot. An idiot with a working home phone mind you.
  

• 
  My neck is stuffed. I could bore you with hundreds of words as to why my neck is stuffed but lets just say its not a great idea to channel all your stress to your neck and shoulders... they will become stuffed. About 6 years ago I ended up in hospital on pethidine because of my neck and according to my Dr. the cure was managing my anxiety and stress not pethidine (bummer). Of course for the next year I ignored all that advice and my neck got worse until out of absolute desperation I made an appointment to see a Bowen therapist. I am so not the poster girl for alternative therapies and I hate massages so that shows how desperate I was to check Bowen out. As I appear to have written lots of boring words about my neck I will wrap it up by saying that Bowen works for me and my neck and the absolute bonus is I get to keep my clothes on for the session. Be warned the day after you get Bowen you will be sore sore sore all over. I am on the nurofen today as I had Bowen yesterday. The good news is by tomorrow I will be feeling much much better (I better be or I will be directing my angry aura at the therapist).

• 
  
  David and I are loving this new Australian Drama/Comedy called Offspring. David said that I remind him of the main character Nina. I see that. I could totally be her if I was younger, had cute blond hair, dropped 15Kg, got myself a Medical Degree and had a nutter family. He clarified its because I sometimes talk to myself.
  
  
  
  

I was always going to like Offspring because I could watch Don Hany read the phone book.

If you haven't seen East West 101 run don't walk to check it out. Its television gold.

• 
  Australia has lost another solder this week in Afghanistan. This makes 21 deaths of Aussie Diggers in the conflict. I get very emotional when I hear of another death and the images of fit young guys being taken away from their families makes me cry when I watch the news broadcast. There are no easy solutions (if there were we would not still be knee deep in conflict 10 years on) to helping Afghanistan achieve good governance and raise their standards of education and prosperity not to mention some small gender equality awareness. The ABC 4 Corners report by Chris Masters on the work being carried out by Australian Soldiers makes me very proud of of the men and women soldiers and the people who lead them. They make a lot of sacrifices a long way from home to be part of another country's "nation building".
  
  
  
  
• 
  There is some new muscle in town. As much as I am loving seeing both sides of the political divide falling over themselves to woo the Independents I do think it may end in tears (most likely for the Australian tax payer). Although Bob Katter's press conferences and door stops have made me laugh out loud a few times this week I do worry that a stable progressive government is going to be hard to form AND hold together for the next 4 years. Out of the mouths of babes yesterday Lulu asked me who was running the country? My guess is the public servants so that is probably situation normal.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• 
  As I was perusing the Myer and David Jones catalogues on the weekend I got the distinct impression that I'm going to be embarrassing myself this summer by wearing the following.
  
  
  

I just love the clog sandals, wedges and white cotton summer dresses combo! I think you are suppose to be 16 years old and 55Kg to get away with these little dresses. I fear that will not stop me ;-) and I cant wait for Summer to try this look out.

• Lastly I love this bedroom. This is the colour of our bed and bedroom furniture so it is actually doable for our new bedroom (just need the lamps, leaf art picture, paint colour, pillows, quilt cover, flowers, sweet looking clocks and carpet ... so totally doable). Focusing on pretty pictures like this keeps me from hyperventilating about my ripped up house.